Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Name	Cop Land
Caption	Cop Land promotional poster
Director	James Mangold
Writer	James Mangold
Starring	Sylvester StalloneRobert De NiroHarvey KeitelRay LiottaMichael RapaportRobert PatrickArthur NascarellaPeter BergJohn Spencer
Music	Howard Shore
Editing	Craig McKay
Distributor	Miramax Films
Released
Runtime	104 minutes
Country
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Gross	$44,862,187

Cop Land is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by James Mangold. With an ensemble cast featuring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Michael Rapaport, Robert Patrick, Arthur Nascarella, Peter Berg and John Spencer.

Plot

Set in the town of Garrison, New Jersey in 1988, located across the Hudson River from New York City near the George Washington Bridge, a large number of residents are New York City Police Department Officers.

One night in New York, the car of young cop Murray "Superboy" Babitch (Rapaport), nephew of Lt. Ray Donlan (Keitel), gets sideswiped on the GWB by a couple of African-American teens. Thinking that they had fired a gun at him, Superboy returns fire and the teens are killed in an ensuing crash.

Worried about a possible racial incident, Donlan's solution is to fake Superboy's death by suicide, pretending that he jumped off the bridge. But another corrupt cop, Jack Rucker (Patrick), is caught red-handed trying to plant a weapon on one of the deceased motorists to justify the shooting. The law-breaking Officers, including Leo Crasky (Spencer) and Frank Lagonda (Nascarella), fear Superboy will resurface and testify to Internal Affairs.

Smelling a cover-up in Superboy's "death", New York City IA investigator Moe Tilden (De Niro) asks small-town Garrison's easy-going, partially deaf Sheriff Freddy Heflin (Stallone) to provide information on the corrupt cops who have homes in his town. Even though they work in a different city, Freddy views them as allies and brothers, able to accomplish what he could not. His reluctance to betray his friends derails the investigation.

Freddy is a lonely man, secretly in love with Liz Randone (Annabella Sciorra), whose life he once saved in a near-drowning that cost him the hearing in one ear. The deafness prevented Freddy from becoming a New York Police Officer like so many others in town, including the one Liz eventually married, the abusive Joey Randone (Berg).

Although the cover-up of the bridge incident at first seems successful, Donlan is told by Patrolmen's Defense Association President Vincent Lassaro (Frank Vincent) that without a body, the case will not stay cold. Donlan reluctantly decides that his nephew Superboy should be killed. However, the job is botched, Superboy was tipped off by Donlan's wife, his Aunt Rose (Cathy Moriarty) and was prepared for the ambush.

Superboy shows up at Freddy's house, begging for help. But when he sees Freddy's friend (and fellow NYPD cop) Gary "Figgsy" Figgis (Liotta) staying at Freddy's after a fire at his own home, Superboy flees into the night.

Freddy is forced to confront hard truths about his friends. When he realizes the mistake he made, legally and ethically, he returns to Tilden seeking help, but is angrily told that the case is already blown by Freddy's failure to co-operate earlier. As he is shown the door, Freddy steals several NYPD files on the cases, just as Tilden hoped he would.

Back in his Garrison office, while others in town become increasingly anxious about Freddy's activities, he studies the files and realizes that his friends and neighbors are acting as if they are above the law. He returns home to find Figgsy packing to leave, not wanting to be further involved.

Freddy tells his Deputies what he is doing. Deputy Cindy Betts (Janeane Garofalo) has already decided to leave Garrison, frustrated by the New York cops having turned the Jersey town into their own personal fiefdom. Freddy also finds out that Figgsy burned down his own house on purpose, for the insurance money, accidentally causing the death of his girlfriend Monica (Mel Gorham).

Everything is coming to a boil. After Randone is killed on duty (Ray Locked a door preventing back-up from reaching Joey, this is revenge for Joey having an affair with Rose), leaving Liz a widow, Freddy becomes more determined to do the right thing. Following up on leads, he persuades Rose to reveal where her nephew Superboy is hiding as the only way to save his life. Freddy finds him and takes him to Garrison's jail, where his Deputy Bill Geisler (Noah Emmerich) abandons the Sheriff to tend to his pregnant wife.

Now all alone, Freddy attempts to take Superboy across the border to New York to turn over to Tilden, but they are ambushed. Rucker blows out Freddy's good eardrum by shooting a 9mm Glock 19 pistol near his ear. Rucker and Lagonda quickly push Superboy into their car and speed away, leaving Freddy injured and almost completely deaf.

Staggering on foot through the streets of Garrison, knowing that Superboy is being taken to Donlan's house to be killed, Freddy prepares to take them on by himself. A shootout follows, with Freddy taking a bullet. He is saved from death by the last-second arrival of Figgsy, who has had a change of heart. Rucker, Crasky and Lagonda are killed and inside the house so is Donlan.

A large crowd has gathers outside Police Headquarters in New York, waiting as Freddy personally delivers Superboy into custody. Freddy can hardly hear Tilden and the other Officers as they take Superboy off his hands.

Weeks later, the scandal having been thoroughly investigated and indictments handed down, Freddy is seen overlooking the city of New York from across the Hudson River. Deputy Geisler calls to Freddy and lets him know that there is a jack-knifed truck in Garrison, Freddy goes back to work.

Cast

Sylvester Stallone as Sheriff Freddy Heflin

Robert De Niro as Lt. Moe Tilden

Harvey Keitel as Lt. Ray Donlan

Ray Liotta as Officer Gary "Figgsy" Figgis

Michael Rapaport as Officer Murray "Superboy" Babitch

Robert Patrick as Officer Jack Rucker

Arthur Nascarella as Officer Frank Lagonda

Peter Berg as Officer Joseph "Joey" Randone

John Spencer as Det. Leo Crasky

Malik Yoba as Det. Sam Carson

Noah Emmerich as Deputy Bill Geisler

Janeane Garofalo as Deputy Cindy Betts

Frank Vincent as PDA President Vincent Lassaro

Annabella Sciorra as Liz Randone

Cathy Moriarty as Rose Donlan

Mel Gorham as Monica Lopez

Edie Falco as Berta (Bomb Squad Agent)

Victor Williams as Officer Russell Ames

John Ventimiglia as Officer Vic Trollio

Paul Calderon as Hector the Paramedic

Vincent Laresca as Robert the Paramedic

Deborah Harry as Delores (4 Aces bartender)

Tony Sirico as Tony "Toy" Torillo (photo only)

Production

De Niro and Keitel had worked together on three previous films, Mean Streets in 1973, Taxi Driver in 1976 and Falling in Love in 1984. Due to the film's modest budget, all of the actors worked for scale. The entire main cast (with the exception of Robert Patrick) and most of the supporting cast, were born or raised in New York. Numerous supporting actors in Cop Land would later appear in The Sopranos, including Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Frank Vincent, Robert Patrick, Frank Pellegrino, John Ventimiglia, Robert John Burke, Arthur Nascarella, Bruce Altman, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Herman and Tony Sirico.

John Travolta was offered the role of Freddy but turned it down.

Two melancholy songs from Bruce Springsteen's 1980 album The River, "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car", along with an effective Howard Shore score, help set the atmosphere.

The movie is based on Mangold's hometown Washingtonville, New York. He grew up in a development called Worley Heights, where many of the residents were NYPD.

Reception

Cop Land had its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on August 6, 1997. Some of the film's cast members attended, including Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Annabella Sciorra, Cathy Moriarty and Michael Rapaport.

Stallone's understated performance against type — he gained considerable weight for the role — was praised by critics and he received the Best Actor award at the Stockholm International Film Festival. Cop Land was also screened at the 54th Venice Film Festival in the Midnight line-up. The film was accepted into the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, but Miramax declined the invitation due to re-shoots that were needed for the film, including footage of Stallone 40 pounds heavier.

Critical reaction was generally positive. Based on 59 reviews collected from notable publications by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall approval rating of 71%. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "There is a rough balance between how long a movie is, how deep it goes and how much it can achieve. That balance is not found in Cop Land and the result is too much movie for the running time". On the other hand, Gene Siskel praised the movie, especially the screenplay, "One to be savored."

In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin felt that,

the strength of Cop Land is in its hard-edged, novelistic portraits, which pile up furiously during the film's dynamic opening scenes... Yet if the price of Mangold's casting ambitions is a story that can't, finally, match its marquee value, that value is still inordinately strong. Everywhere the camera turns in this tense and volatile drama, it finds enough interest for a truckload of conventional Hollywood fare. Whatever its limitations, Cop Land has talent to burn".

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Stallone does a solid, occasionally winning job of going through the motions of shedding his stardom, but the wattage of his personality is turned way down—at times, it's turned down to neutral. And that pretty much describes Cop Land, too. Dense, meandering, ambitious yet jarringly pulpy, this tale of big-city corruption in small-town America has competence without mood or power—a design but not a vision". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "With its redundancy of supporting characters, snarled subplots and poky pace, Cop Land really might have been better off trading the director for a traffic cop". Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers praised Stallone's performance: "His performance builds slowly but achieves a stunning payoff when Freddy decides to clean up his town ... Freddy awakes to his own potential, and it's exhilarating to watch the character and the actor revive in unison. Nearly down for the count in the movie ring, Stallone isn't just back in the fight. He's a winner". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle also liked Stallone's work: "His transformation is more than a matter of weight. He looks spiritually beaten and terribly sad. He looks like a real person, not a cult-of-the-body film star, and he uses the opportunity to deliver his best performance in years".

Home video

Cop Land: Director's Cut was released to DVD in June 2004. Features include the original 112-minute cut, restoration of deleted scenes and scenes extended, addition of New York band Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' for You" to the soundtrack and a new audio commentary with James Mangold, Sylvester Stallone, Robert Patrick and producer Cathy Konrad. Also included are a "Shootout Storyboard Sequence" and "The Making of an Urban Western" documentary.

On the DVD, there are two deleted scenes that primarily show the racism in the town of Garrison. One scene involves all the resident Police Officers chasing down a pair of black motorists and the other shows Heflin's Deputy pointing out that the majority of the tickets issued in Garrison go to black motorists on charges that suggest racial profiling. The movie itself implies a racist undercurrent in Garrison as all the NYPD Officers who live there are White, a black Internal Affairs Detective Carson implies that the cops who live in Garrison are racist to a black Patrolman named Russell who is at the scene of the bridge shootout, a black couple who drives through Garrison are unjustly given a ticket by one of Heflin's Deputies and blacks are implied by the Officers in different ways as "certain people" who are scared of Garrison and as an "outside element" that would present a crime problem to Garrison.

Legacy

Stallone stated on the Opie and Anthony Show in 2008 that the film "hurt" his career and that he had trouble getting roles for eight years, due to the film's failure and the mix of views on whether he was leaving action movies for more character-driven content. Stallone has described this as "the beginning of the end, for about eight years".

The title of the film was later used as a title of a mission in the 2002 video game , where the main character Tommy Vercetti is voiced by Ray Liotta.

References

External links

Category:American crime thriller films Category:1997 films Category:1990s crime films Category:Films set in New Jersey Category:Films set in the 1980s Category:Miramax films Category:Films directed by James Mangold Category:Films shot in New Jersey

Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Name	Robert Christgau
Caption	At the 2010 Pop Conference in Seattle, Washington
Birthdate	April 18, 1942
Occupation	Music critic, essayist, music journalist
Nationality	American
Period	1960s–present
Spouse	Carola Dibbell He left New York for four years to attend Dartmouth College, graduating in 1962 with a B.A. in English. While at college Christgau's musical interests turned to jazz, but he quickly returned to rock after moving back to New York.

On November 22 of that year, Christgau launched a blog on MSN, "Expert Witness", which would only feature reviews of albums that he had graded B+ or higher, since those albums "are the gut and backbone of my musical pleasure;" the writing of reviews for which are "so rewarding psychologically that I'm happy to do it at blogger's rates."

Pazz & Jop

In 1971, Christgau inaugurated the annual Pazz & Jop music poll. The results are published in the Village Voice every February, and compile "top ten" lists submitted by music critics across the nation. Throughout Christgau's career at the Voice, every poll was accompanied by a lengthy Christgau essay analyzing the results, and pondering the year's overall musical output. The Voice has continued the feature, despite Christgau's dismissal, and although he no longer oversees the poll, Christgau continues to vote in it.

Style and tastes

Christgau names Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, and The New York Dolls as his top five artists of all time. In music critic circles, he was an early supporter of hip hop and the riot grrrl movements. In the 1980s, Christgau was a fervent booster of Afro-pop, a stance that alienated him from some in the critical community, as he seemed insufficiently interested in American and British rock music. In the 1990s, however, Christgau's interest in indie rock seemed to increase.

Christgau readily admits to disliking the musical genres heavy metal, but in rare instances has recommended albums in most of these genres.

In December 1980, Christgau provoked angry responses from Voice readers when his column approvingly quoted his wife Carola Dibbell's reaction to the murder of John Lennon: "Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn't it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?"

Slate music critic Jody Rosen describes Christgau's writing as "often maddening, always thought-provoking... With Pauline Kael, Christgau is arguably one of the two most important American mass-culture critics of the second half of the 20th century. … All rock critics working today, at least the ones who want to do more than rewrite PR copy, are in some sense Christgauians."

References

External links

Official web site

Expert Witness blog on MSN Music

Consumer Guide on MSN Music

Users' Guide to the Consumer Guide

Category:1942 births Category:American atheists Category:American essayists Category:American music journalists Category:American music critics Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Living people